Life Lessons from the National Parks

January 18, 2010

He who believes in Me [Jesus], as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ John 7:38

I keep thinking about the Everglades, I guess because last year at this time Joe and I were there. It really is an incredible place.

Plus, I just read that the National Park Service has begun a long-awaited project there. Construction has started at the northern edge, near the Shark Valley (a great place to see tons of gators), where a one-mile bridge is to be built to replace part of Tamiami Trail. The Trail is a major thoroughfare in southern Florida, cutting an east-west swath across the state, adjacent to Everglades and partly through Big Cypress National Preserve (gators also like to hang out alongside the Trail, as do a variety of birds).

The problem is that Tamiami Trail acts as a barrier to the overland flow of water to the park. The bridge—which will be completed in 2013 and cost about $81 million—is only the initial phase of a much bigger plan. The Trail eventually will be raised to facilitate even greater movement of water underneath.

So what’s the big deal with the water, you may wonder? In a word, life: life for the plants and animals that depend on it. Everglades is not a swamp, as many imagine—swamps are stagnant, and Everglades water moves slowly but steadily out to Florida Bay. That liquid is a precious and much-thought about commodity in Everglades. The built-up Miami area siphons off quite a bit to meet its growing needs. Human intrusion, especially in the form of barriers like roadways, disrupts the water quantity and distribution. This project is one more effort to restore the park’s natural balance.

Jesus promises His “living water” will stream through us when we put our trust in Him; sometimes, though, you and I have got to do work to keep it moving. It’s way too easy to put up obstacles that impede the current of goodness and mercy He longs to pour over us. Often we need to put some heavy-duty plans into action to get us back in balance.

I find it’s sort of like physical exercise. I just joined a gym after years of working out at home with a treadmill and free weights, because I found that practice just wasn’t cutting it anymore. My body got too used to the same old routine: I was basically staying about the same weight (even gaining a wee bit—eeek!) and I was bored, bored, bored! I knew it was time to shake things up before I really started slacking off and piling on the pounds.

Perhaps like me with my change in workout, you need to make some adjustments to get your spiritual juices going again. I know I’m always looking for ways to keep my devotional and prayer time fresh. In fact, I’ve had to get into a different habit to fit it into my new exercise schedule. Any kind of change means time and attention and effort—I had to shell out money and now must leave the comfort of my house to stay in shape, and my whole morning had to be tweaked. Spiritual adjustment can be just as costly.

But like the terrific outcome I’m expecting because of my revamped training, and the good things that will come out of the Everglades project, it’s the results I’m looking forward to—a flood of God-centered water that keeps me coming back for more.

My prayer is that you find that life-giving surge just as refreshing.

Comments (0) Jan 18 2010

May 19, 2009

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13, 14

My daughter Mimi’s goal is to go to all fifty states. Most we’ve gotten to over the years on family vacations, two she went to on her own, and three more she and I visited together. Only Alaska and Hawaii left to go—and Joe definitely wants to be on those trips!

Arkansas is one of the states Mimi and I traveled to last year. We snagged a great airfare to Little Rock, stayed there a couple of days, then drove over to Hot Springs National Park, about an hour away.

As you might guess, this park is all about water. In fact, the most popular thing to do is take a bath! So we did. We bought a package deal at our hotel for a massage and a soak, believing we would immerse ourselves in the aforementioned hot springs.

It wasn’t until nearly a year later, as I researched and wrote a short article about Hot Springs for Midwest Living (which will run in the September/October issue) that I found out only a few spas actually use the water from the springs—and ours wasn’t one of them! Upon reflection, I realized our hotel didn’t say it used the spring water—I just assumed it did. The places that actually do use the hot springs, I found out, specifically say so.

This discovery gave me a good laugh, but didn’t really bother me. All sorts of healing and medicinal properties were attributed to the hot springs in years past, but the park service makes no claims about either drinking or bathing in the water. And doctors don’t prescribe “taking the waters” as a cure, like they used to. We didn’t miss anything by not soaking in the “real” springs—all we cared was that the water was clean and hot!

I thought about the spiritual implications of this mix-up after a recent conversation at a writer’s conference. One woman proclaimed that nowhere in the Gospels (the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) did Jesus say He was God (actually, He did, in John 10:30). Another stated her opinion that what was spiritual truth for one person wasn’t necessarily truth for someone else. “But how can there be more than one truth?” I replied. “Truth is, by definition, objective. Something is either true or it’s not. In addition to proclaiming His deity, Jesus said He is ‘the way, the truth and the life’ [John 14:6]. So either He is who He says He is, or He’s a nut job and shouldn’t be paid any attention to.” (If you’ve read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis—p. 28—or Josh McDowell’s story in Skeptics Who Demanded a Verdict, you might recognize this line of reasoning).

My words didn’t go over very well, needless to say, and the three people who had invited me to their table quickly made excuses to go elsewhere. It was pretty obvious that when having the right information really mattered, they were quite content dabbling in “water” of their own making, either ignorant of or indifferent to its source, and to the One who makes very specific, life-altering claims, like this one from Jeremiah 2:13: “’My people have committed two sins. They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’”

Sadly, I recognized that I also am sometimes guilty of trying to fill myself up my own way. Too often I carve out a personal reservoir of self-sufficiency, pouring in everything I find meaningful—work, family, friends, experiences—only to find that it’s a leaky container and I can never quite get enough. God never promised me those things would always satisfy me, any more than the hotel Mimi and I stayed at said we were soaking in the “official” hot springs.

But God does guarantee His spring of living water never runs dry, and I only have to plunge back in to find relief. My prayer is that you too will accept no imitations, but soak, drink and revel in the refreshing fountain of life that is the real deal.

Comments (0) May 19 2009